Sir, – With one eye to the upcoming plain tobacco packaging legislation, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has gone on record as saying that it would "reflect well on Arthur Cox if they did not represent tobacco companies".
It is a worrying development when a Government minister is putting public pressure on the lawyers for a company which is on the verge of taking that same Government to court.
In 1990, the United Nations held a congress in Cuba with respect to the role of lawyers in society. The outcome was a set of principles considered to be essential preconditions for the upholding for the rule of law in a free society. Article 18 of the Havana Declaration reads: “Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.”
Mr Varadkar would do well to reflect on this before he next shares his commercial wisdom with the press. – Yours, etc, CATHAL MALONE BL Carrigaline, Co Cork.